Night Terrors: Savage Species, Book 1 by Jonathan Janz Page A

moments longer before spluttering out beer and scissoring his legs to the ground.
    He gave Emma another grin and exchanged high fives and fist bumps with the adoring crowd.
    Jesse watched him sullenly. Wasn’t it enough the guy was great-looking? Did he have to drink like a champion and move like a professional athlete too? He wondered idly if Austin was the kid’s first or last name, but he was too annoyed to ask.
    “Here you go,” a voice from behind them said.
    They all three turned and saw the muscle-bound guy holding out a pair of plastic cups. Emma and Jesse both took one.
    “Come swing with me?” Musclehead asked Emma.
    “Maybe in a little while,” Emma said.
    He nodded and ambled toward a pair of guys tossing a football back and forth.
    Emma asked Colleen, “How’s the beer?”
    “Tastes like bear piss,” Colleen said.
    “Suits me,” Emma said and drank.
    Jesse hesitated. He normally enjoyed beer, had drunk plenty of it in college, but his stomach gurgled at the prospect of getting a buzz at—he checked his watch—ten thirty in the morning.
    Colleen was watching him, the challenge plain on her face.
    He drank.
    She was right. It tasted like bear piss.
    “I see you found the party,” a jovial voice called.
    They turned and watched Gordon Clevenger, Marc Greeley and the one named Ruth approach.
    Clevenger patted Jesse on the shoulder. “Has the lovely park ranger been by?”
    “Not yet,” Colleen said. “She’s still hair spraying her bangs.”
    Greeley was looking around uneasily. “You don’t think the older campers will complain about the noise?”
    Clevenger shrugged. “There’s enough of a buffer zone between here and the RVs for the senior citizens to enjoy their canasta.”
    A pretty girl wearing a tiara and a snug black bikini appeared and handed the professor a beer. “Ah,” he said, “thank you, Your Highness.”
    Her smile flared brighter, and she turned it on Greeley a moment before rejoining another girl on a teeter-totter.
    “Drink,” Emma said.
    Jesse turned to her and felt a little queasy at the way she was watching him. Her brown eyes remained locked on his, but her expression was inscrutable.
    He drank. She did too. As the beer entered his stomach, some of his nervousness began to dissipate. He drank again. Emma did too.
    “Want me to sign your toga?” they heard Colleen ask.
    A mountainous guy—he had to be a lineman on the football team—had appeared beside Colleen. His eyes were recessed, his brow protuberant. He looked like an overgrown and not particularly intelligent child. Jesse noticed the black Sharpie in his hand, the signatures all over the white sheet he wore. The sheet wasn’t nearly large enough for him, but when coupled with his prodigious size, the guy reminded Jesse of an evil gladiator in some sword-and-sandals epic. Or a villain from the Old Testament.
    Goliath handed Colleen the Sharpie. She accepted it, grasped him by the waist and drew him closer. She grabbed the white fabric over his crotch, lifted it, and signed her name. Goliath grinned widely, exposing two missing front teeth.
    “You wanna drink with us?” he asked Colleen.
    “Why not,” she answered, and she was gone.
    Jesse turned to Emma and felt his stomach lurch. Greeley had led her toward the merry-go-round.
    You son of a bitch , Jesse thought. He knotted his fists, took a step toward Greeley.
    “Maybe you should drink a little first,” a voice at his shoulder suggested. He turned and saw Clevenger smiling sympathetically.
    “There are plenty of girls here,” Jesse said through clenched teeth. “Why does your assistant have to hit on Emma?”
    “Because she’s the prettiest, I suspect. And she even has a brain.”
    “He doesn’t deserve her.”
    Clevenger nodded. “You’re probably right.”
    Emma laughed at something Greeley said. The tall man had begun to spin her slowly on the merry-go-round.
    Clevenger folded his hands behind his back. “If Greeley tries to take